>>2924664It first started appearing in Medieval Christian art to differentiate between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Christians were usually depicted clean shaven, Muslims with beards and Jews with beards and large noses. Jews who converted to Christianity tended to be depicted with normal noses after their conversions, while Muslims who converted to Christianity were depicted as looking the same before and after, whether they had fair skin or black skin it remained the same. It is indeed originally more symbolical than anything.